Nelson’s New Air Traffic Control Tower Open for Business

Airways today opened its new air
traffic control tower at Nelson Airport. The new tower will
support more than 46,000 flights that arrive into and depart
one of New Zealand’s busiest regional airports every
year.The $6 million tower has been built by Airways as
Nelson Airport undertakes a major redevelopment including a
new terminal building and infrastructure upgrades.

Combining a strong and safe structure with excellent
functionality, the new control tower is a significant
investment that will help to enable the future growth of
aviation and tourism in Nelson, Airways CEO Graeme Sumner
says.

“It’s a facility fit for one of New
Zealand’s busiest regional aerodromes and has been
designed to underpin Nelson Airport’s growth with
continued safe and efficient air traffic services.”

Located to the
east end of the new airport terminal, the six level 22-metre
high tower will give air traffic controllers an optimal view
of the airfield. It has been built to meet complete modern
building standards and brings an end to air traffic control
services being located on top of the terminal building where
a control cab has sat since 1974.

“One of the
quirks of having the cab on top of the terminal was that if
the terminal fire alarm happened to go off, we would need to
pause our service. Having a standalone tower adds to the
resilience of our service,” Mr Sumner says.

Nelson
tower will likely be on the of the last bricks and mortar
air traffic control towers to open in New Zealand, following
the opening of Wellington’s leaning tower on August 23, as
Airways looks ahead to digital tower technology. Nelson
tower needed to be replaced before the technology had
advanced sufficiently.

“We’re confident that
digital tower technology now has the capability to provide
greater aviation safety and resiliency,” Mr Sumner says.
“The technology also provides greater opportunities to
extend services in New Zealand’s regions.”

Invercargill will be the first airport to launch a
digital tower in 2020 and a contingency digital tower will
also be in place in Auckland by 2020.

Air traffic
controllers are completing final training before they begin
managing live traffic from the new Nelson tower on
Sunday.

The tower was officially opened by Airways
Board Chair Judy Kirk.

Nelson Airport CEO Rob Evans
says: “Congratulations to Airways on this wonderful
addition to Nelson Airport. This new tower will provide much
greater resilience as the airport continues to grow into the
future to support a vibrant and extraordinary region.

“The design compliments our stunning new terminal in
delivering what will be an unrivalled regional airport
experience for all our customers.”

Airways looks after air traffic throughout NZ; at control towers located at main trunk and regional airports; at NZ's military bases and in our two radar centres in Auckland and Christchurch. We work with government, regulatory authorities, airlines, airports and the general aviation community to ensure pilots, passengers and goods reach their destination - safely.

“The changes mean Inland Revenue will more closely monitor the tax paid by wage and salary earners through the year. If it appears the worker is being over taxed, Inland Revenue will suggest a more suitable PAYE tax code tailored to that worker.” More>>

New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority has suspended the operation of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to or from New Zealand. Currently this affects only one operator, Fiji Airways. There are no other airlines that fly this aircraft type to New Zealand. More>>

ALSO:

New Zealand has been rated among the top countries in the world for working women. The Women in Work Index rated New Zealand third in the OECD and it was the only country outside Europe to make the top 10. More>>